I Spent Twenty Years Becoming Good at the Wrong Game

After earning Russia's highest academic degree in 2024, the author realized he had spent twenty years mastering research methods that lacked rigor and validity. His work relied on flexible theoretical frameworks that could support predetermined conclusions without clear evidence requirements or testable failure conditions, a problem he masked through increasing complexity rather than addressing directly. He ultimately left academia because the system, while rewarding enough to keep him trapped, had become intellectually dishonest and no longer aligned with what he actually wanted from his career.